THE RUSSIAN ATMOSPHERE 171

reasons—so I found myself sitting, with my legs dangling
over the edge, among three or four babies, and some solemn-
faced pleasant-looking women. Some of them were very
dirty; some of them were clean and had white kerchiefs
round their hair. They all looked tired and there was
little movement except an occasional scuffle; and there was
scarcely any talking. At the back of the truck it was
possible to distinguish men asleep. The women with
children near the door couldn't very well sleep, for there
was very much pressure from behind so that you needed to be
alert to hold on. Although the sides of the truck were
open for about six feet, it was very sticky and stuffy from all
the tightly packed people inside.

It is difficult to know what sort of people travel in these
trucks, under such miserable conditions. They were not
labour on .draft. (At Vologda I saw a .whole train * on
draft * bound for the Urals, composed of the same kinds of
trucks only, with women and children predominating.)
They were travelling back to Moscow. Possibly they were
families joining their husbands who had been drafted
there; or people without tickets, whose travelling is winked
at; or refugees returning from evacuation.

At the next station I was glad to get out. There was a
surge towards the entrance on the part of mothers with
babies. I dropped off and returned to the ' soft' compart-
ment, feeling that I was not really travelling * Russian * at
all in my compartment, with only six for four berths.

At Vologda the country opens up. About 75 per cent,
of it is wheatiand, now mostly in stook. I saw harvesting
only in two fields (probably because of the recent rain);
in each case the harvesting was being done by a primitive
reaper, pulled by a horse. There is a lovely monastery,
and wide cornfields running down to the Vologda River,
wide and slow-flowing and full of water.

We stayed an hour at Vologda—at least we should have
-*done. In fact we stayed an hour and a half, while a violent
^argument was settled with the militia, about roof travellers